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Configuring for Federated Search

In the case of federated search, administrators must configure a remote system as well as the current system before federated search is possible.

Thus, this configuration requires at least two large steps:

1. Configure remote system (the system which will be searched)
2. Configure local system (the system initiating a search on one or more remote systems)

Configure Remote System for Federated Search

1. Login to the remote system using an administrative account.
2. Navigate to the Django Administration Panel:
   • On the top navigation bar, click the drop-down-menu (whose title is the user’s username) -> Administration menu-item -> Django admin (on upper-left) -> Applications -> “ADD APPLICATION” button, which leads to the "Add application" page.
3. Configure the remote system to accept logins from the local (current) system to their remote system.
4. Enter information for the following fields in the form:
   • Client id – enter a unique client name here
     • NOTE: This name should be unique across all client-names that may access this remote system.
   • User – select the "Search” icon to get a list of usernames for accounts on the remote system that could be used to search. Select the desired username and its user-id will be displayed in the "User" field.
   • Client type – set this to “Confidential”
   • Authorization grant type – set this to “Resource owner password-based”
   • Client secret – enter a unique client-secret-name here
     • NOTE: This name should be unique across all client-secret-names that may access this remote system).
   • Name – set a unique name for the client application
5. Click the "SAVE” button at the bottom of the page.

The remote system is now configured.

The administrator for the remote system configuration must share the following information with the administrator for the local (current) system:

1. Remote system client id
2. Remote system client secret
3. Remote system user
4. Remote system password (corresponding to the "“user” username on the remote system)
5. Remote system ip-address/URL

Configure Local System for Federated Search

1. Login to the local (current) system using an administrative account.
2. Navigate to the Federated Search Add Repository:
3. On the top navigation bar , click the drop-down-menu (whose title is the user’s username) -> Administration menu-item -> Add Repository link, which leads to the "Federated Search Add Repository” page.
4. Obtain information from remote system administrator for the remote search system configuration: client id, client secret, user, password, ip-address/url
5. Apply these in current configuration as follows:
   • User -> Username
   • Password -> Password
   • Client id -> Client id
   • Client Secret -> Client Secret
   • IP-Address/URL -> Endpoint
6. Configure the local (current) system to automatically accept logins from our system to their remote system when performing federated searches from our system to the remote systems.
7. Enter information for the following fields in the form:
   • Instance Name – set a unique name for the remote system
   • Endpoint – set IP-address/URL of remote system (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8000)
   • Username – set username of remote system account (remote-sys: user)
   • Password – set password of remote system account (remote-sys: password)
   • Client ID – enter the same unique client name here (remote-sys: client id)
   • Client Secret – set unique client-secret-name here (remote-sys: client secret)
   • Timeout – set a time after which federated search is interrupted (default=1)
8. Click the "Add Repository" button at the bottom of the page.

The local (current) system is now configured.

If both the remote and local systems are configured, then the users of the local (current) system may now perform federated searches on this remote system.

Over time, an Administrator may register many such remote systems for carrying out searches initiated by the local (current) system’s users.

Thus, when users initiate searches from this local system, they can be distributed (federated) across all such remote search systems (and, likewise, across all of their, respective, remote search systems as well).